Science Friday - Quercetin May Cause Red Wine Headaches | Worsening Wildfires Are Undoing Air Quality Progress

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

What Causes Red Wine Headaches? It May Be QuercetinIt’s a common experience: After a glass or two of red wine, relaxation can turn into a pounding headache. This isn’t the same thing as a hangover, as the dreaded red wine headache kicks in between 30 minutes and three hours after imbibing.For years, there have been different theories about what causes this phenomenon. But neither sulfites or tannins have been proven to be the culprit. A new theory published in the journal Scientific Reports posits that quercetin, an antioxidant in grape skins, could create a toxic byproduct that leads to headaches.Dr. Morris Levin is one of the authors on this paper. He’s the director of the Headache Center at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and has spent his career treating patients for migraines and other headache experiences. But Levin says there’s not nearly enough funding for headache research as a whole, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the origins and meanings of this common ailment.Levin joins guest host Flora Lichtman to discuss red wine headaches, as well as the remaining mysteries of headaches.Worsening Wildfires Are Undoing Air Quality Progress In The USThe Western US has seen both more frequent and more intense wildfires over the past couple decades, leading to lower air quality and increased deaths in the region between 2000 and 2020, according to a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. While the EPA has made progress in improving air quality in the country, those gains are being undone by smoke from wildfires.The study looked at particulate matter called PM2.5 and a toxic component of it, black carbon. The researchers found that after years of trending downward nationally, the concentration of PM2.5–and the proportion of black carbon within it–began to increase in the West in 2010. This shift was linked to an increase of 670 premature deaths per year in the region.Joining Ira to talk about this and other science news of the week is Rachel Feltman, host of the podcast The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week. They also discuss a surprise found in the oldest known mosquito fossil, why a national plastic bag recycling program was shut down, and why dwarf planet Eris’ surface is a little squishy.  Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The red wine headache has long been a mystery. Is it sulfites, tannins, alcohol itself? Researchers have looked into it. And each one of them made some sense, but each one of them has, in succession, been ruled out and sort of disproven. It's Friday, December 8th, and would you take a look at that? Today is Science Friday. I'm sci-fri producer Kathleen Davis. Since ancient Greece, people have complained about headaches shortly after drinking red wine.

It's not the same thing as a hangover, and lots of theories about what causes it have been debunked. The new report suggests a new culprit, corsetin, an antioxidant found in grape skins. Flora Lickman will talk about that in just a moment, but first a roundup of the top science stories of the week. Smoke from increased wildfires in the U.S. Has reversed progress made in cleaning America's air, caused hundreds of deaths between 2000 and 2020, according to a new study published in The Lancet. Joining me to talk about this and other science stories of the week is Rachel Feldman,

host of the weirdest thing I learned this week. That is the name of her show. Anyhow, based in New York. Nice to have you back, Rachel. Thanks for having me, Ira. Nice to have you. So, all right, tell us about it. this new report, if you will.

Yeah, so, you know, as anyone who has been alive for, you know, this period of time might be aware, the EBA has made a lot of progress cleaning up America's air since the mid-20th century. Unfortunately, according to this new study, all of the increase in wildfire smoke, because, of course, wildfire seasons are growing longer, wildfires are becoming more common in more areas. may have actually been enough to, at least on the West Coast, like, null out that progress in terms of at least fatalities that are tied to air pollution. So if there's not a fire, is the air pretty good otherwise? Yeah. So air quality is still something that, you know, is very dependent on where you are and what's going on. So if you look at the air quality report for your area and it says the air is safe, it totally is.

That's why, you know, the researchers in particular were saying that, you know, these 670 premature deaths were in the West in particular. But they didn't include data from this last wildfire season, which, of course, as all your listeners know, led to some really, really bad air quality all the way on the East Coast. Right, right. I got it. Let's move on to your next story, which is about researchers discovering the oldest known fossils of mosquitoes. Wow. What did they learn there? 130 million years old.

Apparently, that's still not the oldest mosquito that existed. We know they were around for a long time by that point. But they found these two males. And what's really interesting is that these two males had the kind of mouth anatomy you need to. drink blood. And today, only female mosquitoes drink blood. It's something they only do when they need protein to help eggs develop. So this is just a really interesting look into mosquito evolution, showing us that at some point, probably all mosquitoes were blood suckers. No Jurassic Park ancient mosquito blood angle here. I hope not. I can't speak to that, I around.

All right, let's move into Space News. It wouldn't be Science Friday without some space news. You brought us a bunch of stories. A really cool one up first. A solar system was discovered with six planets orbiting in sync. They're calling it the solar six-pack. Tell us about that. Yeah, so this multi-planet system, the gravitational formation is known as residents.

So basically, it's kind of a tongue twister. but like the planets are orbiting in this like fixed ratio. So like every time one of them makes three orbits, the one tighter in makes two orbits. And it's such a perfect ratio that they first spotted a couple of the planets and they were actually able to guess how many other planets they were going to find between them because they were like they're following this pattern so perfectly.

There have to be others in there to fill in the gaps of this synchronized ratio we're seeing. So it's really cool. It's very rare to find planets in sync like this. What I like about this besides how cool the discovery is, is that the system, the solar system, is only 100 light years away from us, right? Which means that intelligent life it's there

might be able to eavesdrop on radio shows from the 1920s here on Earth, right? It's true. Well, and so all of the planets that they spotted, which are what we call sub-Neptune, they're a little bit smaller than Neptune. And they're orbiting a star that's just a little bit dimmer than our star. They're all outside of the habitable zone. It's basically like the entire range of planets is within the range of mercury in our solar system. But it's possible there are other planets further out in this solar system that are habitable.

And James Webb might be peeking over to try to suss that out soon. I love Lucy is on its way to them also. Let's go to one of my favorite stars in the night sky. And it's going, I understand, to disappear for 12 seconds next week. Ooh. Yes. Beetlejuice is the 10th brightest star in the sky. And it's going to briefly blink out of view on either December 11th or December 12th,

depending on where you are. It'll only be visible in this really narrow path, but there will be some live streams from the virtual telescope project in Italy. So people all over the world can check it out. It's what's called an occultation where an asteroid just happens to pass in exactly the right way to just block this very bright star from view. And what, you know, scientists love when this happens, right? They can learn stuff from it? Yeah, you know, whenever a, celestial body is passing in front of a star and we know it's going to happen. We can look at it and, you know, based on how the light changes, we can infer a bunch of stuff about both of those bodies, you know, about the star and about the asteroid. So, yes, scientists are very excited. And I guess,

you know, you have to say the star's name three times to make it come back. And if not, I don't know what's going to happen. Or watch the movie or something like that. Let's bring it back home for the last space story. And I'm talking about apparently a dwarf planet, the dwarf planet heiress in our solar system is a little squishy. What does that mean? Yeah, I really love this one, Ira. It's Aris, which is, it's named for the Greek goddess of discord because when it was first spotted,

it looked like it was a little bigger than Pluto. And that started the whole debate that led to Pluto's demotion. They are, in fact, like, almost perfect twins. But unlike Pluto, which we know from its flyby is like a really respectable little planet with lots of, like, interesting activity going on. ERIS, it turns out, is maybe pretty squishy. What does that mean? Squish. Yeah.

These new models using data from radio telescopes in Chile basically infer that there's heat, left over from when the Dwork planet was created, that like the rocks inside are still radioactive enough that they're creating this heat. And they think it's like kind of oozing and might like kind of make the icy surface of the planet flex. It flows a little bit. The scientists have compared it to a soft cheese. It kind of sounds like it's maybe like a ball of fondue cheese covered in like shaved ice. That's the picture I'm getting.

Camembert. Yeah. And what can they learn something about our own planet or our solar system from this? You know, I'm not sure anyone has made that connection yet. But, you know, we always love to learn more about how planet formation can go and sort of how the planetary body can evolve. So the fact that this little dwarf planet, which is so cold because it's 68 times farther away from the sun than Earth, might have, you know, enough kind of internal. keep it kind of roiling is certainly fascinating. I love the cheese analogy.

Let's come back down here to Earth a bit. A plastic bag recycling effort has not worked out as promised. Tell us about that, please. Yeah. So about 20 years ago, this online recycling directory for plastic bags started off, the film drop-off directory. And six months ago, an ABC News investigation found that this directory, which listed like 18,000 store drop-off locations where you could supposedly drop your plastic bags,

get them recycled. They put trackers on a bunch of bags, and most of them did not end up getting recycled. A lot ended up in landfills. Some got sent to overseas facilities that don't handle plastic bag recycling at all. So, you know, the website itself was just a directory, and this was a place where brands like Target and Walmart had claims that they were going to facilitate this recycling. And so now six months later, the website has been taken down because the people who were creating it say, you know, this is basically at this point just supporting greenwashing because this was really misleading for people. Right. Let's finally move on to the magazine Popular Science was effectively shuttered a couple of

weeks ago. I know you used to work for them and you're still doing podcasting with the company, but this is really a huge loss of science journalism. So many of us grew up with popular science. Yeah, I grew up with Popsight, too, and, you know, it was such an honor to get to work on the print magazine. You know, it has a 151 year history. I was so psyched to be there and the executive editor for the 150th anniversary. And of course, the magazine went digital a while ago. So, you know, the, the brand has evolved before and it, it will evolve again, I hope. But it's definitely, it's, it is a blow. I mean, it's 151, 151 years of publication. Yeah, yeah. Well, like you said, the hope is that the podcast I host for Popsie, the weirdest thing I learned this week, is going to get to continue in 2024. So I hope if folks are feeling

nostalgic, they will check it out because it really is keeping the spirit of Popsie alive. You know, and is it following the trend of just other magazines that are shutting down, or is there a reason having to do with science that it covers? Any idea on that? Oh, I really have no idea about that, Ira. But, you know, media is a tough industry these days, unfortunately. So I definitely encourage listeners to go out of their way to support the news outlets that they really value. Rachel, thank you very much. And good luck to you.

Thank you, Ira. Rachel Feldman, host of the podcast, weirdest thing I learned this week. Hi, Ira here, reminding you that Science Friday has a dollar-for-dollar donation match, which means that any donation made through December 31st will be doubled. Yes, so now is the time to head over to

ScienceFriiday.com slash support and make a gift. All right, 2024 programming depends on the generosity of our fans and listeners. Again, that's sciencefriiday.com slash support and thanks. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. And I'm Flore Lichtman. It's the season of merrymaking, and that means you're always looking for a gift to bring to somebody's holiday party, right? Right.

Lots of times, I feel like a bottle of wine is perfect. It fits the bill. It is absolutely true. I was just thinking about that, which makes me wonder, are you Flora, a red or a white wine person? Thank you for asking. I'm a both person. You're safe with me with either. But, you know, I have noticed this weird thing with red wine.

The head pain that comes along with it. You know, that's right. I think everybody gets that, the dreaded red wine headache. And you know, you don't know what it is because it feels sometimes like a hangover, but it's not quite that, right? Right. Well, I learned that's exactly it. It's completely different from a hangover. And there's been a breakthrough in what might actually cause it.

So this comes from Dr. Morris Levin, director of the headache center at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Dr. Levin, welcome to Science Friday. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me on your show. Okay. First of all, I just want to clear this up. So a red wine headache is not a hangover. Right.

It's a different kind of thing. Hangover headaches, as you know, and as everybody knows, happened a number of hours after drinking tend to happen the next morning. And they tend to happen when one overdrinks more than just drinking a little bit, right. And this is different? This is quicker. It happens in the first couple of hours. And it can sometimes occur after just drinking a little bit. And does it happen with all alcohol, or is this a red wine specific headache? It's really specific to red wine, hence the name.

And I think people can get it after drinking white wine. or after drinking another kind of alcohol, but it's kind of rare. And it's been a mystery as to why this happens with just red wine for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Thousands of years, really? Right, right. Has it been referenced in literature? Well, I don't know, but I think it probably has occurred to people.

I know it's been referenced for the last couple of hundred years. It seems like there's a lot of misinformation about what causes or might cause red wine headaches. Like I've heard that sulfites in wine are bad. Are they responsible? Right, Flora. It's been a lot of things. It's been tannins that have been proposed. Histamine, sulfides, tyramine, alcohol itself. And each one of them made some sense, but each one of them has in succession been ruled out and sort of disproven pretty convincingly. And now as you, as you gathered, Andy Waterhouse, the wine chemist, and I have settled on this compound that's found particularly in red wines. Yeah, talk to me about your theory. The theory is that a compound

called quercetin, which is present in red wine and much higher concentrations than it is in white wine and other alcoholic beverages, is the culprit, although it's not a direct culprit. It actually inhibits an enzyme that is responsible for detoxifying alcohol in our systems. And the problem is when that enzyme doesn't work properly, there is a buildup of a toxin called acid aldehyde. And it's a pretty nasty toxin that not only causes headaches, cause a number of other symptoms. And the more I look into this acid aldehyde, I think it's not just toxic in terms of things like headaches and maybe a little nausea and so on. I think it's toxic to a number of organs and might be kind of dangerous, more dangerous than I thought.

So if you have a red wine headache, does that mean other bad things are happening in your body? Good question. I don't know. I think it might. Of course, like anything else, like any other toxin, the more you take in, the worse it is. And I think probably the occasional red wine is not going to hurt anybody other than maybe giving them the headache. I'm glad to hear that. What does this chemical do? Is that the right word chemical? for quercetin? Yeah, it's an interesting compound. It's not in itself dangerous. In fact, it's marketed as a nutritional supplement because it's an antioxidant. It's a member of this family called flavonoids, and they are kind of helpful and can be helpful for people, but it's when taken in concentrations that are kind of high in conjunction with alcohol, ethanol, that's where it can be

a problem. What does it do in the grape? Like what's its purpose in the grape? Yeah, it's an interesting question. It's found in a lot, this flavonoid, this porcetin, is found in a lot of fruits and vegetables. And it's a pigment. And so it is found in grapes and other foods that are colorful. For example, it's found in onions,

but only the onions that are colorful, like yellow onions. Found in other vegetables and fruits. And it's probably not bad for you at all. unless it's taken, like I said, with alcohol. Oh, interesting. I mean, does the fermentation process have any effect on its concentration or how it's working in the body? We don't think so.

But what seems to happen is that when grapes are exposed to a lot of sunlight, which is a good thing in the winemaking business, the more sunlight grapes are exposed to, the more sugar and the better they ferment. And, you know, I gather that particular happenstance, allows grapes to turn into very, very good wines. And so one of the things that we've noticed is that the better wines that have this kind of high sun exposure, high sugar content to the grapes, makes the best wines. So Andy Waterhouse is thinking that if you want to avoid this kind of headache,

maybe drink the less expensive, the cheaper wines. Music to my ears. Right. So does that mean it's found in the skin of the grape? and that's why you see it more in red wine than in white wine? I think that's right. And then, like I said, the grapes that are treated in certain ways have more coercion. And interestingly, white wines just don't have much.

So where did this theory come from? I mean, what sort of science do you have to back it up? And what would it take to know for sure that this is what's causing the red wine headache? That's the key question. And right now it's just a theory. So we do have to prove it. We think, first of all, the way we came up with this, idea, and it wasn't our first idea. But the way we came up with it is to look at what is present

in red wine and not present in any other type of wine or other alcoholic beverages. And this sort of passed mustard for something that is very high in red wine and low in other beverages. So after thinking about and excluding some other culprits, potential culprits, this just seemed to be obvious. And what would it take to prove it? We could, and we have designed a few experiments that we're waiting to do because we need to get funding for doing such things. But a simple experiment that I think might work is to simply ask people to try wines with low porcetin compared to wines with high porcetin. These would be people who do get red wine headaches and see what happens.

And then down the line, we'll look at particular concentrations, will probably evolve ways to have. have Kersitin entered into the systems of people in other ways and see what happens. And, you know, I think it'll work one way or another, prove or disprove this theory. And of course, it'll be real helpful to people who'd like to drink red wine. And we hope it'll be helpful to wine producers. And that's nice. But what really appeals to me is that, you know, this is my focus of my career for just about my whole career, one of my main bosa. And what I'm hoping is that if we can learn more about this, we can learn more about what causes some headache types. We can learn about the big question in my practice, which is why do some people have much

worse and much more frequent headaches than others? I wondered about that if there are different kinds of different categories of headaches, or if every headache is the same? No, there are. And, of course, the most common headache conditions, migraine. And even though we've been studying migraine, we meaning the medical world's been studying migraine for hundreds of years, still a lot of unanswered questions. One of the things I've noticed about red wine headaches is that my patients with migraine seem to be particularly

prone to red wine headaches. So, but yes, there are a number of headache types from tension type headache to cluster headache, post-traumatic headaches, and so on. When I have a headache, what is actually hurting? Like, is it, is something happening in my brain? Is it around my brain? Like, where's the pain? coming from? Yeah, that's a good question. You probably remember that the brain itself doesn't feel pain. It's insensate. But the linings around the brain, called the meninges, are very pain sensitive. And the skull itself, even though it doesn't feel pain, the linings around the skull are very sensitive. The scalp is very sensitive. Blood vessels around the brain and around the head are very sensitive.

We think the pain from migraine comes from a pain producing process in the linings around the brain, the Dora. But red wine headache is still a little mysterious. I think it's probably similar to migraine in some ways, but we're not sure. When you say that there's a pain process happening, does that mean that there's swelling or there's inflammation? What's actually causing the pain? Yeah, you said it, inflammation. Probably inflammation with associated swelling and blood vessel changes and chemicals that get secreted that produce pain. Are there headaches that don't have a trigger? Yeah, good question. I think everything is part of a process. Everything in the headache world is part of a process that has a kind of a beginning and hopefully an end. But yeah, I mean,

there are headaches that just seem spontaneous. Some of my patients are very good, for example, at identifying all their triggers, whether it's weather changes, foods, or stress. Other patients will tell me that for no particular reason, they have gotten very bad headaches. How did you get into this red wine question? Are you afflicted personally? You know, I drink wine. I don't drink very much, and I kind of like it, but I don't have a big tolerance for wine. Yet I know that I have to be careful with red wine in particular because I will get a red wine headache. But that's not how I got interested in it. I was just approached by Andy Waterhouse with this idea that we should really try and find out the cause of it. Is there a big headache mystery that you're dying to solve?

Oh, so many. You know, I think, like I said, we come a long way in terms of understanding how migraine, the most common headache type, exists. And why is it that some people, like me, for example, get a migraine attack once a month or so, it's not so hard to abort the attack, and we go on with our day. And other patients, especially some of my most difficult patients, have headaches more days than not. Why is that? You know, and why are some people so disabled, why are there many, many patients who don't just have headaches, but they have a lot of accompanying symptoms like cognitive changes, mood changes, terrible nausea, visual changes, et cetera. So I could go on and on. There are lots of mysteries, but that's the way science is, medical science especially. We saw one mystery and two more pop up. Fascinating. That's all the time we have for now. I'd like to thank my guest. Dr. Morris Levin, director of the headache center at the University of California, San Francisco Medical

Center. Thank you for joining me. Oh, it's been a pleasure, Flora. Thank you. And that's all the time that we have for today. A lot of folks help make the show happen, including Ariel Zich. Santiago Flores. Dee Petersmith. Full of Samares. And many more. On Monday, we'll talk about the trailblazing female astronomers who identified hundreds of the stars that we know today. But for now, I'm Cy-FRI producer Kathleen Davis. Have a great weekend.